Saturday, 10 May 2014

Cubs - The life cycle of a butterfly


At Cubs this week we learnt about the life cycle of a butterfly for the Naturalist badge. To illustrate it to the cubs we used pasta, leaves, a stick and dried peas. I thought it looked very effective and the Cubs enjoyed making it. 

Next week I think we may need to look at spellings !!!

Bank Holiday Shop at Morrisons




I was thrilled to be chosen as a #MorrisonsMum and I received £80 of Morrisons vouchers to do a bank holiday shop so that I could blog about my Morrisons experience.

I don't generally shop at Morrisons as there are other supermarkets nearer so I was interested to see how Morrisons compared to my normal Sainsburys or Asda shop. We went on the Friday evening and whilst the car park was busy we quickly found a car park space. Once we had collected a trolley we were ready to explore Morrisons.


Morrisons had a good selection of meat both in the meat aisle and the meat counter and we bought two packs of chicken breasts and a pack of chicken thighs and drumsticks which were on offer at 3 packs for £10. I don't normally buy chicken from supermarkets as it can be quite tasteless but all the chicken we bought was really tasty and the chicken breasts were quite plump and with 3 breasts in a pack they were the perfect size for us.

Throughout the store were yellow markers showing you products that have had their prices cut as part of the new cheaper Morrisons. These savings on everyday products really add up and help with the weekly shop. There were lots of products that I buy weekly that are now cheaper and I will easily save quite a lot of money by switching to Morrisons.

This is what Morrisons have said about it.

This is the start of a new cheaper Morrisons.

From today, we’ve cut the prices on over a thousand of your favourite products. Not temporary reductions or supermarket smoke and mirrors, these are new every day low prices on the things you buy every week. So you’ll notice the difference with every shop.

And although we’re cutting prices, we’re not cutting corners. You can check our pricing at http://www.morrisons.com/pricecuts/.

You’ll still get award-winning meat and fish, still get trained butchers and bakers, still get the best of fresh on Market Street and still get friendly Morrisons service.

Look out for the yellow markers when you shop in store and online at morrisons.com. If it says I’m cheaper you know it’s staying cheaper.


There was a well stocked delicatessen where we bought sliced turkey for lunch on Saturday. 

There was a huge fruit and veg section and everything looked lovely and fresh. Normally when you visit a supermarket in the evening the fruit and veg section can be quite bare but in Morrisons this wasn't the case at all.


We had a trolley full at the end of the shop and bought the foods we would normally buy as well as some treats. Morrisons had an excellent cheese counter so we stocked up on lots of nice cheeses and some crackers to go with them. We do a lot of baking so we bought lots of cake making ingredients and as it was our wedding anniversary on the Saturday we treated ourselves to a bottle of wine.

I also spotted some hanging baskets that were perfect for the front of the garage, the baskets were full of yellow violas and at only £5 each were a real bargain. 





So what meals did we make with our Morrisons shop? Well on Saturday we had a tasty salad with a pork pie which worked out at £1.03 per serving.


For Saturday tea we had more salad, this time with the chicken thighs and drumsticks. I used a Flava-it barbecue marinade which cost 69p and coated the chicken before cooking it.



This was a really easy tea and I will certainly buy the marinade again as it made a simple tea much tastier.



The cost was

Chicken    £3.33
Marinade  £0.69
Salad Bag £0.99
Cucumber £0.49
Pepper      £0.79
Sweetcorn £0.85

Total cost £7.14 which served 5 people so was £1.43 per serving.

Instead of a pudding we had cheese and biscuits, the cheeses we bought were

Sandhams Creamy Lancashire £2.22
Shropshire Blue £1.42
Five Counties £1.55
Cheddar with onion £1.28
Cheddar with roasted onion £1.08


The brown cheese is the cheddar with roasted onion and whilst it looked an odd colour it was really nice and I will certainly buy it again.

On Sunday I made a chicken and bacon pasta bake. This was another easy recipe that everyone liked. 

Chicken and bacon pasta bake

3 chicken breasts
6 rashers of bacon
7oz cauliflower
7oz pasta
knob of butter
6oz mushrooms
10 shallots
1tsp  dried mixed herbs
1oz plain flour
12 fl oz chicken stock
4 fl oz milk
2 oz cheese


Preheat the oven to 220C

Dice the chicken and slice the bacon (I use scissors to do this as it is easier) and fry until cooked, add the shallots after 5 minutes and when everything is cooked put in a large casserole dish.


Cook the cauliflower for 5 minutes and put to one side. Remove with a slotted spoon (so you can use the boiling water for the pasta) and add to the casserole dish.





Cook the pasta for 10 minutes until cooked, drain and put into the large casserole dish with the cauliflower and meat.



Melt the butter and add the mushrooms, garlic and herbs and saute for 5 minutes. Add the flour and before gradually adding the stock and milk. Stir continually and bring to the boil. Cook for around 5 minutes until the sauce starts to thicken and then add the cheese. 



Pour the sauce over the chicken and pasta and stir well, you can also add grated cheese if you like. 
Bake for 15 minutes until it starts browning and is bubbling.




And here's the finished dish



The cost of the dish was

Chicken       £3.33
Bacon          £1.50
Cauliflower  £0.99
Pasta           £0.28
Mushrooms £0.50
Shallots       £0.75
Cheese       £0.42

Total            £7.77 for 5 portions which is £1.55 per person

I already had the herbs, flour, stock and milk.

To finish off the meal William made a chocolate cake which he decorated with very pink swirly icing.



We had a fun bank holiday weekend and had lots of lovely food thanks to Morrisons. Whilst it is not my nearest supermarket I will certainly be making the trip again as they had a great range of food and the price cuts are worth travelling that little bit further for.

Saturday, 3 May 2014

Bluebells


Yesterday we walked a different route so that we could see the bluebells in the wood. The floor was covered in them and not only did they look spectacular they smelt amazing too.

We really are lucky having such beautiful walks on our doorstep.



Friday, 2 May 2014

Making bird feeders



At Cubs we are currently working towards the naturalist badge. This week we spent some time looking at different birds, wild flowers and trees and we also made bird feeders.

We tied a piece of string around a small stick and then threaded it through a hole in the bottom of a yoghurt pot, leaving the stick inside the cup. We then mixed lard and birdseed together making a very sticky mess.



We then put the mix into yoghurt pot and told the Cubs to take them home and put them in the fridge overnight and then they can be hung in the garden for the birds. The Cubs thoroughly enjoyed making them and hopefully they will encourage lots of birds into their gardens.